A Comment on "Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation"

Bearbaki, Nicolas (2016): A Comment on "Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation".

Abstract

Persson and Rossin-Slater (2016b) claim to provide the first causal estimates of the effects of fetal stress exposure on mental health later in life. They emphasize that their analysis is the first to address non-random exposure to a relative’s death and the endogeneity of gestation length to fetal stress. In light of discoveries regarding prior literature, we find these claims to be exaggerated and misleading.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: family ruptures, fetal stress exposure
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I12 - Health Behavior

References

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Persson, Petra, and Maya Rossin-Slater. “Family ruptures, stress, and the mental health of the next generation.” NBER Working Paper No. 22229, May 2016 (2016b). Forthcoming in the American Economic Review.